Your Tuesday Morning Roundup

Some bits and shits we (no longer the royal!) didn’t get to yesterday.

Where Hockey Grows Up

You’re not going to believe this, but I’m about to compliment Core Four-er Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post. Isaac, one of the youngest beat writers in town and certainly the only member of the Core Four young enough to know what the term longform means in a modern setting, wrote an articletitled South Jersey: Where Hockey Grows Up. It’s expertly laid out– the kind of layout typically reserved for something like a New York Times feature, complete with parallax scrolling and everything. It’s the sort of thing the big-time papers in this town should be doing. Now, I would’ve chosen a topic with a little more punch than hockey is pretty popular in South Jersey… but it’s well-written and a nice change of pace for Isaac, who led the charge when beat writers got all bent out of shape when the Flyers used Instagram to announce their starting goalie last fall. And, somewhat impressively, Isaac managed to hold off until part three before mentioning Bobby Ryan, which has to be some sort of record for anything ever written about South Jersey hockey from a Flyers perspective. Appreciate the restraint, Dave. Sam Carchidi would’ve put Ryan in the headline: South Jersey Hockey: Where Bobby Ryan Grew Up.

Where Hockey Goes to Win

Mike Richards, Jeff Carter and Justin Williams combined for three points – Richards and Carter each scored – in the Kings’ 3-0 squashing of the Rangers last night. The Kings are now one win away from their second Stanley Cup in three years. The Flyers have won… carries the premature exit… one, one playoff series over that span. But it doesn’t matter, because Jeff Carter can’t score in the playoffs. He has 24 points in 24 playoff games (he also had five points in six games for Team Canada en route to their gold medal in the Olympics… but hey, who’s counting?).

Talk to Mike Richards’ teammates with the Los Angeles Kings, and inevitably the conversation moves to the conclusion that he’s a winner. He has won at every level.

He’s got a Memorial Cup, a Calder Cup, an Olympic gold medal and a Stanley Cup ring. When it comes to winning things, Richards is pretty much set.

But trying to explain what he specifically does that’s different from other players in the league, well, that’s where it gets a little more challenging. What makes Richards a winner?

This question was posed to Kings defenseman Jake Muzzin.

“Well, he’s won at every level,” Muzzin said. “When guys have been through experiences like that, they know what it takes to do it again. Won in junior. Won in minors. Won here. He knows what it takes.”

Netflix shaming

No doubt that Netflix has an interest in this, but I love how they are unabashedly shaming US carriers for their lousy, throttled broadband speeds. Yesterday, they released their latest ISP Speed Index and took particular aim at Comcast and Verizon:

Some large US ISPs are erecting toll booths, providing sufficient capacity for services requested by their subscribers to flow through only when those services pay the toll. In this way, ISPs are double-dipping by getting both their subscribers and Internet content providers to pay for access to each other. We believe these ISP tolls are wrong because they raise costs, stifle innovation and harm consumers. ISPs should provide sufficient capacity into their network to provide consumers the broadband experience for which they pay.

Here are some data points from the May update of the Netflix ISP Speed Index:

US: Charter has entered the top three ISPs while Verizon and Comcast both slipped in the major ISP rankings. Verizon FiOS is down two slots and now ranks behind DSL providers Frontier and Windstream. Comcast dipped two spots as well, while Verizon DSL is down one.

The chart:

In case you’re wondering, only one of the 14 carriers in Canada have an average speed below 2.27. None in Sweden, the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland or Denmark. 10 in the US. Cable company fuckery, boys and girls.

To try to shift blame to us for performance issues arising from interconnection congestion is like blaming drivers on a bridge for traffic jams when you’re the one who decided to leave three lanes closed during rush hour.

Someone else wrote about hockey in NJ. Here’s the link.
Someone else wrote about Mike Richards. Here’s the link.
Someone else wrote about Netflix stream speeds. Here’s the link.
Someone else wrote about some Brazilian drink. Here’s the link.

Can the Philly papers please cease and desist. It is so painful to glance at the petty articles of the ancient dust clouds they call journalists who just try stirring the pot. Why do they need to pester Nick Foles about contract drama, before his contract isn’t even up? He isn’t DeSean, he doesn’t care about that stuff.

Hey Kyle, remember that time carter was a point per game playoff scorer for us? Neither does anyone else. And I was a carter fan. Stop acting as if he was, or wouldve been, had he not been traded. Not to mention that WE DIDNT TRADE CARTER TO THE FUCKING KINGS. When he was with us he was a great player who never showed up in the clutch or was particularly good on D or special teams…We traded him to a shitty ass columbus team, where he wallowed into nothing, and in return got voracek (whose had very similar, if not better point production than carter since coming here) and a pick that turned into Cooter (21 year old who plays like, and will most likely be, a perennial selke nominee)…That trade was a win for us, no matter how shocking it was. Just because he got his act together in LA doesnt mean he wouldve here. Hindsight is 2020.

I never fully subscribed to the whole richards/carter were bad teammates thing either, but again…THEYRE IN A MUCH BETTER SITUATION!!! And remind me again..What kind of teammate was carter in columbus, the place where we, ya know, actually traded him? Yep.

Stop acting as if the kings success level and our current success level is souly because of carter and richards. The fact that you NEVER mention Pronger when talking about this says alot, dude. Ive never seen a philly public figure whine and be so hung up on a player/trade as much as you are with these two, Kyle. You complain about type OBs wearing orange and black shades? Well with richards and carter, you wear perfect 20-20 hindsight glasses.

Wow, dude. Players leave teams and go on to win elsewhere all the time. In other news:
The sky is blue
The earth is round
Grass is green
Wintee is cold.
Summer is hit
Etc
Etc
Etc

Over half of the players you listed played in the cup finals with the flyers. They ran into better teams. What does Ed Snider have to do with that? If Jeff Carter was ANYTHING like the complete plauer his is now back in 2010, wed have won that fucking cup…Or at the very least hed have put that god damn puck in the back of a virtually empty net in the game 6 ot loss. And youre throwing Gagne and Recchi on that list? While were at it using that stupid ass logic,lets just go back and analyze every trade ever made by all 4 teams and bitch, bitch, bitch. Recchi won two cups after his stint with the flyers as a journeyman. Gagne barely touched the ice when he won the cup with LA. Other than Brindamour, and maybe sharp or this years jeff carter, none of those players were mainly responsible for their teams winning/flyers losing after they left. Jesus christ, why is it that Im the bat shit crazy “type ob” fan when your arguement is completely without logic or thought?

Dude, while every other team has only had one or two short stints as contenders, the flyers have gone to at least one cup final in every decade theyve been in existence, and have always been competetive. Theyve missed the playoffs like twice in the last 19 years or something ridiculousm They couldve easily had 3 or 4 cups by this point. Its tough to win. Weve just gotten the shorter straw, but weve had the teams to do it. Im not saying im satisfied with it, nor am i saying ed snider hasnt done some stupid shit, but all this whining ablut culture and crypt keeper ed is ridiculous. Theres plenty of stuff to harp on when it comes to this teams tendencies and front office habits. But instead of that, you just yammer on ablut crypt keepers and culture and richards/carter, and fucking Mark Recchi for fucks sakes. While youre focused on the shiny hood ornament, im focused on the check engine light and whats underneath the hood…And IM the one whose a crazy idiotic blind flyers fan? Fuck that, man.

PodJune 10, 2014 at 11:24 am

Amend that first sentence to : While every other philly*** team has only…

Next!June 10, 2014 at 11:32 am

Yah, you just keep on cheering for the Check Engine Light cup, while the rest of us (and all of hockey, really) measure teams’ success by Stanley Cups

(As you’ve said on more than one occasion, “[you’re] the crazy idiotic blind flyers fan”).

Next!June 10, 2014 at 11:40 am

Pod,

” the flyers have gone to at least one cup final in every decade theyve been in existence”

Not quite. They weren’t in the finals in the 60s or 00s

But hey, you’re batting .667 so, yeah….

PodJune 10, 2014 at 11:49 am

Sure. The amount of Stanley Cups a team has measures their current teams success. Obviously. Thats why the Leafs and Canadiens have like 40 cups between the two of them and are currently the best two teams in hockey. Go ahead, root for one of those teams, why dont you. Ill stick with the flyers, who are much closer to winning a cup than those two teams.

And also, your precious Carter and Richards led kings will have the sams number of cups as we do by the end of the week. Sooo the players that youre implying are solely responsible for LAs cups that we shluld never have gotten rid of are just as good as this team and the players we got…Because stanley cups. Got it. Makes total sense. Youve vanquished the type ob argument once again with your iron clad logic.

PodJune 10, 2014 at 11:51 am

Forgot about the 60s, and I counted 2010 as in the 00s. But sure, just ignore my entire arguement because of that.

Next!June 10, 2014 at 11:52 am

(Maybe you should change your name to “Apologist Fan-Boy Hyperbole Machine”)

BobJune 10, 2014 at 12:49 pm

The ‘check engine light’ is on and has been for the last two seasons. You can’t possibly look under the hood today and like what you see. Not saying Carter/Richards would make any meaningful difference in that but if you think Craig Berube and the current roster of players and their no-trade contracts has the makings of ‘Kings East’ (or even the Rangers for that matter) then you need a new mechanic.

steveJune 10, 2014 at 2:17 pm

Adam Eaton has more World Series rings than Roy Halladay + Cliff Lee combined. Water is wet too FYI.

Funny how no one talks about Dan Carcillo winning a title after he left the Flyers. I mean shit bring him back 6yr/60 million because he’s a winner! Bryz made it further in the playoffs than Mason so lets bring him back!

Justin Williams' Right AchillesJune 10, 2014 at 11:20 am

Kyle is Type OB Negative. He only brings up former Flyers when they win and shits on anything the current Flyers do, such as being very quiet when the Kings trailed SJ three games to none.

kyle’s point is that carter had potential and turned into a great player. yes he went to the kings via columbus. but richards KNEW carters potential and fought for him to come to the kings. flyers did not see richards/williams/carter’s potential so there’s that. flyers suck at recognizing/not recognizing potential. they trade vezina winning goalie bobrovsky and keep who? bryz, that’s who. and we’re STILL paying bryz millions. fuck the flyers. what have they done for you but give you one orange towel. yay.

Obviously bob was a complete mistake and misjudgement of talent. But carter was here for 6 years. You csnt knock them for talent evaluation when what they evaluated was consistent after 6 years. He just went to a better situation man. Why cant we leave it at that?

Everyone knows more about hockey than Kyle Scott. Richards on the kings is the equivalent of Vinny Lecavs here…way overpaid 3rd liner at best who should be cut. Mike Richards played in all 82 games and scored 11 goals this year numb nuts (directed at the article not who commented). That trade was glorious, Simmonds alone is a better player today. I’ll bet my left nut that the Kings release/cut/amnesty Mike Richards this offseason.

Sure Jeff Carter is great but still, he’s 2nd line and probably the 4th best player on the team (Quick, Kopitar, Doughney in any order). He would be the 2nd best player on the Flyers today, and maybe the best if Giroux plays like he did half of last season.

Still fuck the Justin Williams trade, but he is just an older version of Jake Voracek, 20 goals 30 assists a season winger.

If Kyle Scott ever watched hockey he would know the Kings won both cups on Bernie Parent-esque goal-tending and a defense that scores goals as will (Drew Doughney.

For shit’s sake the Flyers scored 35 more goals than the Kings in 2013-14

doesn’t matter what happens after the season. 2 things are very clear:
#1 richards/carter/williams will each have TWO STANLEY CUP WINS
#2 flyers will not win the cup in mr. snider’s lifetime
#3 steve’s an asshole
enjoy your free orange towel…wooooppppppeeeeeeeeeeee

Jordan is all-world. The Flyers on the other hand, only do enough to remain “competitive” (i.e. one of the top 16 teams) in order to perpetuate ticket sales among the lemmings, then more often than not, falter when it counts.

Horry? Giroux? Lecavalier? Carcillo? You are all over the map on this one, grasping at straws. You seem like one of those douchebags that twist stats to make whatever point suits you. One thing you can’t twist is that the Flyers haven’t won a cup in 39 years.

Come back when you have a coherent thought.

BobJune 10, 2014 at 11:26 am

And what good are those 35 goals this week? Regular season = meaningless.

I agree. Flyers would probably not be better with Richards and Carter now. But that speaks to the Flyers organization more than it does those guys. Pronger had a lot of mileage and injury issues before he ever came here. Getting him was a risk on that front and he wasn’t going to play forever anyway. The problem is Flyers had no defensemen coming up (of any quality) to replace him; maybe because they gave up two first round picks in getting him. Gotta move on, but I’m happy for Carter, Richards, and Williams and hopefully Hexy was learning how to do it while he was in LA. He has his work cut out for him here.

Kyle, my name is Scott Howson. You may know me as the Blue Jackets’ GM from 2007-2013. I traded Carter to the Kings in exchange for Jack Johnson and a draft pick. Please acknowledge that moving forward. Thanks.

PS My successor traded Gaborik to the Kings as well where he’s had quite a post season.

Carter wasn’t playing when the Flyers came back against the Bruins. And “great leader” Mike Richards had exactly three shifts in the two overtime periods of Game 2.

Forget about Richards at this point. He’s a shell of his former self, he’s going to get bought out or traded, and the Flyers are better off with Simmonds and Schenn.

It sucks not having Carter’s goal-scoring (24 GC in 2013-14), but Voracek (26 GC) arguably produces more anyway. Like another commenter said, Carter is probably the fourth or fifth best player on the Kings and he’s not even their best goal scorer (Gaborik).

You can disagree with the Carter and Richards trades, but don’t act like Holmgren and the Flyers got hosed. The trades have played out evenly, if not, more tilted to the Flyers side.